A and her identity

Recently one of my workmates (A) had her wallet stolen. She was shopping at Ikea and stopped to get lunch. Putting her tray down at the table, next to her two young children she noticed she had no cutlery. She turned her back for literally one and a half minutes to get it.

It wasn't until they left the dining area that she realised she didn't have her wallet. Immediately she cancelled all of her cards. But it was too late. They had used her credit card to buy $75 worth of petrol. When she quizzed the guy at the service station he defended himself with 'We can't check every signature'. Which is total bullcrap. It takes two seconds to check a signature. Another workmate has a husband that manages a servo. And he has confimred it. All signatures MUST be checked. I know that from working in the vet clinic. The servo is liable for that transaction on her card. But it's going to be a bitch getting it back.

Not content to take the $400 in her wallet and the free use of the credit card, the fuckers have also taken her woolworths ezi bank card (which is a division of, but not worked through, the commonwealth bank), to the commonwealth bank an Enmore THREE times. TWICE they overdrew past the daily limit on the card. On the CANCELLED card. A has taken that same card to the commonwealth bank previously and they refused to deal with her.

The bank were going to run her around with getting her money back too. She got onto one of the major radio stations (2GB) in Australia and told them her story. It was to be their last show before their summer break. And they were going to put her on air at 10:30 in the morning. Unfortunately they ran out of time. But they really felt for her. So they did the ring around for her. And about 20 minutes after she was told she wouldn't be on air, she got a call from the bank. They will refund her money in full. It will be in her account immediately. And the radio station called her back to make sure the bank had done what they said they would.

Not only that, but they have tried to open new accounts in her name. And have tried to redirect her mail. Now A is absolutely paranoid. They have enough identification to be able to apply for credit cards, or loans. They have her library cards, and video rental cards. And photos of her kids. They know where she lives. Who knows how far it will go.

The police have been no help. They have continued to tell her to report anything new to them. But it has been up to her to chase the video surveilance from Ikea and the service station. The bank has none. And as of Friday afternoon, they had not been viewed. This leads us to believe that they might be investigating these guys already on a larger scale. Or, more likely, that she has fallen through the cracks of apathy.

I told her about my recent experiences with the police. How he should have been charged with assault, but they only decided that over a week later. After he had a copy of the AVO in his hands and knew what they would bring up against him. So he changed his story and denied the rest.

Life sucks sometimes. People are so cruel to others. What would posess someone to rummage through someone elses bag while her two young children were sitting there? And fine, they took the money, but to take her identity too... They can do so much damage to her and not even care.